Grower Champagne Tasting

Your humble narrator labors long into the night, a pen in one hand, a glass in the other


Several years ago Dave and I were invited to a Champagne tasting at Fat Cat's in Norwalk. There were five of us, we ate pizza, talked politics, and drank Grower Champagne for four hours. It was one of the best tastings I have ever attended, a very simple, straightforward and thorough examination of wine.

For most wine drinkers, Champagne escapes attention and scrutiny. It is typically served ice cold, consumed quickly after a toast, or promptly at midnight. The big marque houses and their ubiquitous labels dominate the market, while their house style obscures the vast complexity of great Terroir.

After the Norwalk tasting (as it's come to be known), I turned my back on all major brands of Champagne, because they were quite simply that, brands. We carry no Veuve, Moet, Dom, Cristal, Bollinger or even Krug at the wine shop where I am the buyer. (Yes, I know Krug is great wine, we all love Krug, have you seen the prices recently?)

We put our queer shoulder to the wheel and did the hard and thankless, yet noble task of disabusing the American public of their love of Orange labels and misinformed notions of what constitutes quality and what justifies price. We set out to apply the same passion and critical eye to Champagne as we had to the rest of the wine producing world.

Quite simply put, the Champagne we sell is wine made in France by farmers. In that respect it is much like the Burgundy we sell, and the Sancerre and the Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It is different in character, but not different in nature, to the Rioja we sell, and the Barolo. It is artisanal wine that can be tied to a piece of land. It is wine made by a man or woman with whom you can speak or dine, or even thank.

In an effort spread the enthusiasm, and keep our Champagne Kung Fu the best, we hold a Champagne and Pizza event once or twice a year. The following are my notes from this year's two events, seven Grower Champagnes tasted twice under the same conditions within thirty days. In each of the two tastings the wines were pulled off the ice and allowed to gradually come up to room temperature. All wines were served in Bordeaux glasses to maximize aromatics and aeration. Finally, each wine was tasted after it had gone flat, three hours after being opened. In doing so, we were able to track the full arc of the wine and participate in the very long process of it's complete and full expression.

A. Margaine Cuvee Traditionelle $48
6.5 hectares in Villers-Marmery, Planted to 10% Pinot Noir, 90% Chardonnay
entire estate production 4600 cases

Opulent fruit and very aromatic with a touch of salt. Old fashioned in a good way, in a White Star Ocean Liner sort of way. On the palate, lemon pith, with a little bitterness to balance candied orange peel. The salt is now firmly brine, as in sea spray, in my mind, giving way to a long finish of lemon fruit, the pith is gone yet the pithiness remains. I time the finish with my watch, one and a half minutes


Pierre Peters Cuvee Reserve $55
17.5 hectares in Le-Mesnil-Sur-Oger, Planted to 100% Chardonnay
entire estate production 13,300 cases

FINE wine in the truest sense of the term. Very focused and precise, yet grand and sweeping. A Chalk minerality that is very Cote d'Or, Like Grand Cru Burgundy with bubbles. It brushes aside the the A. Margaine which by comparison seems quaint, like an English uncle in tweed, while the Pierre Peters is urbane and wicked suave.


Marc Hebrart Cuvee de Reserve $50
12.5 hectares in Mareuil-Sur_Ay, Planted to 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay
entire estate production 5800 cases

The Cuvee de Reserve is 80% Pinot Noir and it shows, lots of blue fruit even black fruit. Power and muscularity with great poise. I flash on David in classic repose, strong and balanced, not overly dramatic but symphonic. The Champagne is enhancing the pepperoni on the pizza, creating a very intense tactile interplay between food and wine. The finish is insane, timed at three minutes, no really.


Vilmart Grand Cellier $75
11 hectares in Rilly-La-Montagne, Planted to 60% Chardonnay, 36% Pinot Noir, 4% Pinot Meunier
entire estate production 8750 cases
organic producer

The best example ever of the presence and use of oak. The still wine spends ten months in cask, but the oak is like dark matter, you know it's there but you can't see it. The oak bumps up the texture of the wine and supports the fruit, but it is totally absent in the conventional California Chardonnay-esque way. Very fine gunflint minerality, with salt and egg yolk. This is really good wine.


Pierre Peters Cuvee Especial 1999 in Magnum $175
17.5 hectares in Le-Mesnil-Sur-Oger, Planted to 100% Chardonnay
entire estate production 13,300 cases

Brioche and Minerality on the nose, Yeast and stone. Reminds me of young 2002 Corton Charlemagne without the weight. Very tightly knit. This is a mature but vigorous wine like a 1968 Steve McQueen, the flavors are pronounced yet extremely well integrated. A block of iron with sherry lemon oil.
one hour later brioche has blown off leaving pure apple and lime zest, classic Champagne fruit components, reminds me of the 1988 Lanson Noble Cuvee I used to drink with such great abandon.


Aubry Rose Brut $54
17 hectares in Louy-Les-Reims, Planted to 30% Pinot Noir, 40% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay.
entire estate production 11,700 cases

Fat strawberry, fairly simple and somewhat clumsy. It is hard for me to rectify this wine with the 1999 or 2000 Aubry de Humbert which is one of the finest wines in the world to my palate. This is odd, not bad, but odd. Two dimensional, without great depth, There is no wizard behind the curtain.


H. Billiot Rose Brut $65
5 hectares in Ambonnay, Planted to 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay
entire estate production 3750 cases

Ohhh... Much more complex than the Aubry. Brioche on the nose giving way to Red Apple skins. The fruit is Strawberry balanced with bitters, as in Strawberry Rhubarb pie, AND I LOVE PIE! Much longer finish, finer wine in all respects.
After an hour or so of chasing this wine around the glass, I start to imagine stuff like, do I smell fennel? Best of night? Maybe. Magnificent wine definitely. Even warm and flat, this is a wine of limpid joy, clear flavors well pronounced and expressed